Harabhara — Restaurant in Sydney

In one line - It’s a big No to arrogant owners who do not care about their customers.

We usually come in here to eat pani puri regularly. We are traditionally jain and strictly follow that. So no ONIONS no GARLIC and no POTATOES.

The lady at the pani puri counter was made aware by us about our dietary restrictions, i.e we are traditional Jains, never apotatoes/onions any other such items that aren’t acceptable in Jain customs. The lady understood (so we thought) and started serving. Us being extra cautious, repeatedly kept confirming, asking after each serve if that was Jain, each time we were told that yes, it’s just chana and paani. We ate it all, quite happy with it as well and we wanted more. We went in and ordered another 4 plates but this time around when we asked the lady said, there are potatoes with chana and they don’t serve jain pani puri at all.

Upon confrontation, we were told, “did you not realise you were eating non jain pani puri”. I guess it was our mistake that we counted on the judgement of the server and restaurant to understand our dietary requirements, which clearly wasn’t the case.

We spoke to the manager on duty and she understood our concern. Then she spoke to the owner. I’ve never interacted with a business owner who had such a rude attitude and nonchalant about her own business. There was no apologies from the owner and server but only the manager on duty who was the only one who understood.

Cont.

We were told that, “you should’ve known what you are eating”. I was honestly shocked at this response. We put a level of trust in someone who prepares our food especially regarding dietary requirements. We trusted the restaurant to understand our dietary requirements and serve us food accordingly which apparently was too much to ask for and expect. That trust was obviously broken.

We still went in the restaurant and ordered more food; to our despair. Service was good, the manager on duty also took care of us nicely. We ordered a sandwich, jain again, which was served with potato chips, which was just hilarious that point. Again we didn’t say anything.

However the phone call with the owner was very disappointing. We were told, we won’t get a refund, we should’ve know what we were eating, and basically told us off. We really felt that owner is in this business for the money and genuinely doesn’t care about the food they serve. They just want to serve subpar food, with no care given to the quality and taste even. None of the items we ordered were even remotely nice and just bad.

We won’t be returning for sure, and would recommend everyone to spend your hard earned money where the restaurant really cares about what they serve and just aren’t after your money

The owner did not care about our diet requirements. Instead she only cared about her money. Everyone or Anyone who is allergic or religious, I strictly recommend and urge to avoid going here. Avoiding going here will convey the right message to such irresponsible and non...

EDIT 05/07/2024 (looks like the establishment has changed their name to "Harabhara", when they finally realised that they cannot sustain their name to be a "Dosa Plaza". Nevertheless, good luck to them, but my review stands")

We had been to "Dosa" plaza on Saturday, 23rd July 2023, as my wife was craving a Masala dosa. We decided to try out this restaurant as we had been to most other restaurants in the Harris park area, but hadn't been here so far. We both were ravenous, having skipped our breakfast in the morning. It was just past mid-day and our order for 1 Masala dosa, 1 Rava Masala dosa and 2 filter coffees was placed approximately at 12:15 pm. The restaurant was relatively empty, with only 3 other tables occupied apart from ours. There was no sign of our food arriving even at 1:00 pm - after about 45 minutes of placing the order. On asking the waiting staff we were informed that we will have to wait another 5 minutes. After another 10 minutes, our coffee was served, which we were expecting to have after eating, or at least along with the food. After another 10 minutes (by now it had exceeded an hour since placing the order), my wife's Masala dosa arrived. Since she did not want to eat alone, I shared a few pieces of the dosa and found that it was almost cold, soggy, burnt on one side and the filling inside was a pasty insipid slop. We always expect a Dosa to be crispy, served hot and the "bhaji" inside to be flavourful. This dosa was anything but that. Both of us were sorely disappointed and ate the stuff only because we were very hungry and strongly believe in not wasting food. My Rava masala dosa was still not served and the waiting staff came up with the excuse that Rava Masala dosas take much longer time to prepare than only Masala dosas. At this point we realised that though this joint calls itself "Dosa" plaza, the cook did not have a clue on how to prepare a dosa. We noted that the other diners had ordered stuff other than dosas like vada pav, punjabi dishes etc and seemingly did not have issues. However making a dosa seemed to be out of scope. The waiting staff were however polite, courteous and apologetic, which was the only redeeming point over the entirely disastrous experience. I ended up cancelling the Rava masala order and left, vowing never to come back. We briefly contemplated going to another Dosa joint in the locality, but our hunger and enthusiasm was crushed by this point and went home. I wonder how this restaurant survives, given the vast competition...

Great food, good taste and friendly service staff overall. Been here on multiple occasions recently and have had positive experience mostly. Ordered a mix of Indian and indo-chinese dishes and they were both good. The chilli garlic noodles taste was good however could use better presentation.

On one of my recent visits, I was disappointed with the overall experience though. It was a weekend evening and really busy. The staff seemed to be under pressure and same reflected on food presentation as well. The dishes didn't come out as expected from previous visits. It was a big let down though as the food food quality was sloppy. $7 something a Mojito which turned out to be sprite with green colour added, not even a real mint leaf in it, (see my picture attached),

Having said this all, I am not going to judge this on one bad experience and would give this a try again to hopefully post a more positive review next time.

Visit Apr2022: It was busy, not enough staff, they seemed stressed, had to chase 3 times for the food we ordered, soup came out second last dish, not yet best experience. Definitely not worth another visit now...